Jordan, Golding, and Hill are all lauded as Men of the Year. Williams, however, is listed as a "Woman" of the Year, with quotation marks prominently displayed on the magazine's cover.

Look at the cover photos below.

The quotation marks attracted the attention of people on Twitter.

"Okay but why is woman in quotation marks," a Twitter user named Anna Wagner said.

"Why 'woman' and not WOMAN?" another Twitter user said.

Perhaps anticipating the negative reaction the Williams cover art might receive, GQ included an annotation on the cover.

Next to "Woman," outside the second quotation mark, was an asterisk. A second asterisk was found at the bottom left of the page, below the subhead "The Champion, Serena Williams." It says "Handwriting by Virgil Abloh."

He said Abloh had "styled everything in quotation marks as of late (see Serena's US Open apparel that he designed)."

Rouse added: "It quite literally has tags/quotations around it because that's Virgil's own style/branding, including in his partnership with Nike and Serena herself. That's the only 'message' behind it."

Virgil Abloh Virgil Abloh

In a Colombia lecture that had once been called "Everything in Quotes," Abloh — a former creative director for Kanye West — explained why he likes to put quotes around everything.

According to W Magazine, he said: "Quotes call into question the very phrases they surround (just think of the quotations sprinkled so liberally through the tweets of president Donald J. Trump)."

Williams is aware of internet conspiracy theories that say she was born a man

Williams has long been scrutinized over her apperance, with her muscular frame standing out in women's tennis.